The end of the grammar school era

At Leyton County High School the 1960s proved to be a decade in which there were huge successes in track and field athletics as well as cross country running. Great credit must be given to the Head of PE at that time, Mr D Broomfield. An athletics team is vast in numbers and covers a huge range of events. During the 1960s and into the 1970s, the programme would include steeplechase, pole vault and hammer, which you will rarely find in school or district competitions nowadays. The photographs of the athletics teams with their collection of trophies demonstrate just how successful Mr Broomfields teams were. Individual students also reaped a lot of athletics success, notably M. Blackman (Senior Boys, 200m) and G. Patel (Intermediate Boys, Pole Vault) were winners at the English Schools Championships in 1970.

It was not, however, just athletics that thrived during this time. The full range of sports were played and indeed in tennis, the senior doubles pair of S. Hill and R. Pierce were winners of the Boys' Schools LTA Championship at Wimbledon in 1965. In Basketball too, students impressed and M. Wright and M. Howgill both represented the England Under 18 Basketball Team between 1962 and 1963.